Chris Lombardi puts defense and security under the spotlight, as he shares his takes on recent NATO and EU cooperation and provides insight into the company’s own long-term strategic partnerships in Europe.

Three trends are currently driving the global electricity sector: decarbonization, decentralization and differentiation. Utilities are making significant contributions to mitigate carbon emissions, while a technology revolution is …

Serbia given EU’s backing

The European Union has delivered a strong message of support to the new Serbian government of Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, sworn in on Sunday (27 April) after a landslide victory in early elections in March. Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign-policy chief, said in a joint news conference with Vucic in Belgrade on Monday that the EU was “determined to help and support Serbia in its efforts to ensure a strong economic path for its people”. “Serbia has always been part of Europe,” Ashton said later in an address to the national assembly. “And now you will join us in the European Union.”

Top priority

Vucic said that Serbia’s bid to join the EU was his top priority for the coalition government, together with reform of Serbia’s overbearing public sector, its pension system and labour market. He told Ashton that Serbia intended to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund for a precautionary agreement in July.

He said his government would stop subsidies for loss-making state-run companies and slash some €1.5 billion from the state budget each year between now and 2017. Ashton said: “I hope that one of the benefits of your relationship with the European Union is to send as strong as possible a message to investors, to markets, to institutions, that coming to Serbia, investing here is a good thing, is good for business, is good for the people.”

Serbia began membership talks with the EU in January, after EU member states decided that Belgrade had been sufficiently constructive in normalisation talks with Kosovo, a former Serbian province, mediated by Ashton.

“Now you can be the example to others in your region, and show what can be achieved through hard work, leadership and, yes, tough choices,” Ashton told the MPs. “The dialogue with Pristina has been a real success,” Ashton said, using the name of Kosovo’s capital in order to avoid using the country’s name. “And comprehensive normalisation of relations is a key part of the accession process.”

Undisputed leader

Vucic led his nationalist Progressive Party (SNS) to victory in a snap election last month that turned him from informal power-broker in the previous administration of Prime Minister Ivica Dacic – a Socialist – into the undisputed leader of Serbia. Dacic’s SPS, which came second in March, is also part of the new coalition, together with other, smaller parties; Dacic has been appointed first deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs. The parties represented in the government hold a sweeping majority in Serbia’s 250-member national assembly: of 228 MPs in attendance on Sunday, 198 voted to back the new government.

Vucic, who was special co-ordinator for security and the fight against corruption in the Dacic government, ran on a platform of law and order, economic reform and closer ties with the EU. Vucic, who turned 44 in March, served the late Slobodan Miloševic as information minister during the Kosovo war in 1998-99 but backed Dacic’s normalisation talks with Kosovo. Vucic said that he would now lead the EU-mediated talks with Hashim Thaçi, Kosovo’s prime minister, with Dacic handling the daily management of the process. Jadranka Joksimovic, an SNS official who was elected to parliament in 2012, was appointed minister without portfolio in charge of EU integration.